If you are a parent, you know very well the struggle of engaging your kids in family activities, especially if you have teenagers. These Holidays the struggle becomes even more apparent. You want to spend time with your kids, but they get bored easily and you don’t know how to keep them entertained. So how can you prevent your kids from disappearing behind a screen?
There is no better time for family activities than holidays. You have plenty of time to spend together as a family, yet somehow your kids prefer to play with their phones. If you are being honest, you too tend to look at your phone a bit too often. To avoid spending the entire holiday behind your screens make sure to spend time with your kids and create fun memories together.
The Importance Of Family Activities
In a digital age, spending time with your family is more important than ever. Unfortunately, children are as addicted to their screens as adults, even toddlers play games on tablets. This is a big problem. Family time is important for the development of children. In fact, research shows that a great connection between a parent and a child prevents mental health issues, creates a stronger immune system, and a sense of well-being.
This, however, doesn’t mean you have to ban all technology in your house. Technology is not the enemy of your family. You can still watch holidays movies together and play video games if you are doing it with your family. To put it simply, family time is about doing things together and fostering your special bond. It is about building memories as a family. But how can you create memories with your kids?
Do A Project Together
If your children are creative, you can start a family project over the holidays. This will be a great opportunity to create a bond with your kids while introducing them to something new. Every day you and your kids will know exactly what to do. You won’t have to agree on an activity, because you have already made plans. A project is a great way to create memories with your kids.
One day, your children will look back on this time with joy. They won’t remember all the time they spent playing on their tablets, they will, however, remember making a project with their family. To make the project seem more real, create a name for it. Make it a big project that will get your kids excited. Get help naming your next project here. This too can be a fun activity to do with your kids.
Get Active Outside
Some families like indoor activities, others are made to be outside. If your kids constantly run from one activity to the next, switching between movies, tv shows and video games, then they might be crying out for exercise. Luckily, there are lots of fun activities to do outdoors, especially during the holidays. Depending on your budget and the weather in your local area, you can explore anything from outdoor or indoor skiing to climbing and ziplining. And if you want to keep things simple, there is always sport.
Spend time together as a family by doing your own sports tournament. Create a team and inspire your kids to become more physically active in their day-to-day lives. If they are naturally competitive, they might even enjoy a running competition.
Travel Back In Time
For the geeky families, there is always the option of traveling back in time. What this means is that you can visit an open-air historical museum where you can dress up and engage in the sort of activities people did hundreds of years ago. You find plenty of historic villages with horse-drawn carriages with hands-on activities from the past all over the world. Although many kids might say it sounds boring, most of them can’t hide their joy once they get there.
And if you don’t live near any great open-air museums, you can do simple projects at home – like cooking the way they did in the old days and playing old-fashioned board games. Weird? Maybe. But that’s why it’s an activity.
Bake Yummy Cakes Together
Kids love cakes, so why not teach them how to bake them? Get them engaged in finding recipes in cooking books and bake a new cake every day of the holiday. There are many ways to keep things healthy and you can always break things up by cooking sugar-free cakes in funny shapes. After all, it’s not about the actual cake but about the process of making it. Let your kids think out of the box and come up with something funny. There are many ways to make baking fun for kids – how about animal shaped cakes? Or gingerbread with colorful toppings? Baking requires teamwork, creativity and skills. For this reason, it’s a good way to teach your kids important lessons while having a lot of fun in the process. It’s something they are bound to remember.
Find Inspiration Online For Your Family Project
As you can see, there are a lot of exciting projects to do, but deciding on one is not easy. Thankfully, there is plenty of inspiration to find on the internet. You and your kids can go online and decide on a project together. You can find easy and fun crafts for kids on this link. It is important that you involve your kids in deciding on a project, otherwise, they might grow bored with it. By letting your kids decide, you have made sure to pick a project your kids are as excited about as you are.
And there are plenty of things to do. How about embarking on a jewelry-making project with the family? Or perhaps it’s time to build that treehouse you always talked about? You might even choose to host a sports competition on your lawn. There are many options and a lot to look forward to.